You know those “The Great Gatsby parties” that everyone throws that are only vaguely inspired by 1920s fashion and completely miss F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s whole message on decadence and the fallacy of the American dream? The upcoming YouTube Premium series, Gatz, is that, but worse.

This Great Gatsby origin series is being developed at YouTube Premium, which will reimagine the tragic figure in the Fitzgerald classic novel as a mixed-race man, based on some academic theories that posit that Jay Gatsby was mixed race. But because this is an origin story TV series, you can bet that this Jay Gatsby will at least be hot and young, and possibly solving mysteries.

No year in cinema ever shapes up exactly the way we’d expect. In fact, it’d be boring if one did. Still, when faced with the promise of a whole new year of movies, I can’t help try and predict which ones I’ll love or hate. I put my best guesses in list form last year, and I did it again this year.

Now, in the spirit of journalistic integrity (or, less charitably, critical solipsism), it’s time for me to look back at my most anticipated films of 2013 and see just how reality measured up to expectation. Hit the jump to see how great or terrible I was at guessing what’d be my favorite films of 2013.

If you’re both 1) desperate for some distraction from the holiday hubbub and 2) eager to get a leg up on the rest of your office for the annual Oscar pool, here’s a way to kill two birds with one stone.

Over thirty screenplays for some of 2013’s top films have just been made available, legally and for free, through the studios. Highlights include John Ridley‘s 12 Years a Slave, Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy‘s Before Midnight, Terence Winter‘s The Wolf of Wall Street, and many more.

Baz Luhrmann‘s films have become increasingly reliant on digital effects over the years, and his recent adaptation of The Great Gatsby is a massive confection of digital imagery and practical photography. Sometimes the blend is seamless, other times less so, but Luhrmann consistently uses digital effects to create a vision of New York City that may have never quite existed, complete with surrounding areas and lavish Long Island homesteads.

Now you can watch a reel that, in a few minutes, begins to break down just what was real and what was not in the finished product. Read More »

Trailers! Who has time to watch them all? There are something like forty wide releases due out this summer alone. If you assume each trailer runs about two minutes, that’s about an hour and half of your life you’ll never get back. That’s time you could’ve spent actually watching one of these movies.

If you only watch one trailer this spring, then, you’ll want to make it this one. This three-minute supercut teases most of the season’s biggest releases, from Iron Man 3 to The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. It’s surprisingly coherent, which may suggest that these titles aren’t as different as the filmmakers would like us to think. Or maybe it just proves that with the right music and some skillful editing, you can totally change the meaning of any scene. In any case, watch it after the jump.

Though Fergie‘s contribution to the The Great Gatsby soundtrack insists that “a little party never killed nobody,” anyone who’s read the book will know that’s not exactly how things turn out for Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his pals. But until the consequences come, you can bet they’ll take her suggestion to “dance until we drop.”

While the earlier trailers have played up the tragedy of Gatsby’s tale, the latest one mostly emphasizes the hardcore partying. That means fast cars, fancy boats, sparkling diamonds, glitter by the bucketful, and all the booze one could possibly want. Watch the video after the jump.

Baz Luhrmann will be the latest filmmaker to try to put his stamp on The Great Gatsby when his Jay Z-scored, Leonardo DiCaprio-starring 3D confection hits theaters next month. But he’s far from the first to try and translate the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic to the big screen. Just one year after the original novel was published in 1925, Paramount Pictures and Herbert Brenon put a silent film adaptation in theaters.

Like most other silent pictures of the era, the bulk of the film has long since been lost. (Common estimates say 90% of silent films have been lost.) Fitzgerald likely wouldn’t have minded much; he and his wife Zelda found it so intolerable they walked out of the movie. But fortunately for curious cinephiles, the trailer, at least, has survived long enough to hit YouTube. Watch it after the jump.

This short UK trailer for Baz Luhrmann‘s The Great Gatsby puts the focus on the (possibly) manufactured nature of Gatsby’s life and persona. That was a big part of the last full trailer, too, but here the aim more than ever is to show the personal nature of the conflict between Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton), with Daisy (Carey Mulligan) in the middle.

In addition, a few more posters (yep, one more set, to complement the othertwo) have come online. Read More »

A week’sworth of new posters have paved the way for The Great Gatsby‘s latest trailer, which shows off quite a bit of new footage. In contrast to the earlier trailers, which played up the heady party atmosphere of the 1920s, this one emphasizes the fiery passions that drive the Baz Luhrmann-directed tale. Specifically, it delves into the mysterious Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), the tragic embodiment of the American Dream.

To complement the shift in focus, the trailer also samples some different tunes from the soundtrack, including a haunting cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” by Beyoncé and André 3000. Check it out after the jump.